Most true entrepreneurs are dreamers, hustlers and some might say visionaries. They see the world differently, constantly look for new ideas and find innovation kind of a hobby.

The also drive people that work for them a little crazy.

Working for an entrepreneur is a little like driving down the highway about 6o miles and hour with no steering wheel.

What every wildly successful entrepreneur has found, either by accident or crisis, is that they need a yin to their yang – or what Gino Wickman and Mark Winters call an Integrator.

An Integrator is that person that knows how to implement the plan, lead the troops and hold everyone accountable for achieving the stated business plan objectives – including the entrepreneur. The Integrator is a bit like an operations manager on steroids. Sure they naturally handle a great deal of the operations kind of stuff, but their real role is arbitrator, communicator and referee.

First off, if you’ve not read either of these books, I suggest you get both. In Start With Why Sinek echoes many of themes surrounding purpose that I’ve been preaching for years. Leaders Eat Last is a bit of a follow up in that once you have your “why” you must go to work on attracting and leading with whom that why resonates. As Sinek explains, the title of the book is drawn from a long-standing, yet undocumented, policy in military mess halls in which leaders by rank eat last. Perhaps the primary point in the book is that the true art of leadership isn’t about ruling with power, it’s about helping others get what they want.

Sinek compares that act of parenting to leadership. In a perfect world, a parent wants what’s best for a child, helps them reach their full potential and doesn’t always get to be their best friend in the process. But the key here is trust. When we trust a leader, even if we don’t actually like spending time with them, we will follow them.

Sinek uses the success of the 12 Step Program widely used in Alcoholics Anonymous to make another point about true leadership. Over the years, AA has found that if people successfully move through the first eleven steps but fail to embrace the twelfth, they often fall back into old habits. The final step asks them to help another alcoholic find recovery. The message and perhaps paradox of leadership is that in the end it is simply the act of helping others get what they want.

Questions I ask Simon:

How is your title inspired by the military?

What makes you a leader?

How does leadership, or lack thereof affect job satisfaction?

What you’ll learn if you give a listen:

How Simon found his focus and passion and discovered how to facilitate trust between leaders and their employees

Running a thriving business, with or without employees has become so much easier today. You have at your fingertips, through the use of marketplaces and technology, access to the greatest talent available in the world. You can hire that talent virtually or rent that talent by the hour to get that very specific request filled.

The Producer Model as I’ve taken to calling it (h/t to Brian Clark) allows anyone with a game plan and some hustle to assemble teams of talent to take on much larger projects and competitors while staying nimble enough to pivot towards the next promising opportunity.

Tapping talent marketplaces for programming, legal, design and pretty much anything you might need on your team is a great way to build a thriving business while you work from anywhere in the world.

My guest for this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is Kate Kendall, CEO of CloudPeeps and founder of The Fetch. We discuss content marketing and the need for small businesses that may not have the resources to hire full-time marketing help.

Questions I ask Kate:
• How do you get the most out of freelance or remote work?
• How does CloudPeeps work?
• Do people go to CloudPeeps to fill positions permanently?

What you’ll learn if you give a listen:
• Why investing in a marketplace startup model is difficult and why you must plan long-term
• Why the “Remote Work” movement is catching steam
• Why freelancing sites like CloudPeeps must evolve to scale

If you run a business that relies on local customers then you’ve probably come to the conclusion that being found online – even though a purchase may be made offline – is paramount to your success.

All the sales expertise, brilliant product demos and awesome packaging won’t amount to much if you’re not actually in the game.

As consumers, we’ve created and adopted all manner of ways to filter out unwanted sales messages, even those we may actually need to hear.

The key then for local businesses is to do everything in their power to show up early in the buyer’s journey by placing great emphasis on things that will help you show up in the search engines – particularly in Google Maps and on mobile devices.

This includes doing things like creating local content, focusing on reviews and making sure your listings in directories are accurate and up to date.

My guest for this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is Mike Blumenthal, one of the North America’s leading Google local search experts and creator of the Understanding Google Places and Local Search blog.

Questions I ask Mike:

Why is Google search so important for local business owners?

How do you get into the Google Local 5,7,3 pack?

What is the difference between local and organic ranking?

What you’ll learn if you give a listen:

Why it is so critical to make sure all of your business information must be accurate and up-to-date

Every local-based business wants to improve their local lead generation process. Leads are the life-blood of your marketing efforts. The best salespeople can convert those leads into sales, but without leads even the best sales force on the planet can’t bring you more business.

That is why lead generation is one of my favorite subjects to discuss, and the topic of a new book from a group of my friends and Duct Tape Marketing Certified Consultants called Local Lead Generation: Proven Tips to Help Grow Your Business.

There was a time, a really long time, where selling was compared to winning a game, outflanking your opponent or capturing your prey. And maybe when the seller held a few of the cards there was some truth to the analogies.

But then the Internet came along and gave the buyer most of the power. They could now source any supplier, determine who really delivered on their promises and just what the price should be. So what’s a hunter to do now? Get on the same team as the buyer. Become a source of value and insight in helping the buyer determine the best approach for them. That’s the essence of Same Side Selling.

Three different sales personas, and which persona you should strive for.

Why sometimes you should occasionally walk away from a sale.

This week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by MarketingProfs. Do you have the write stuff? Unleash your inner writer by downloading the latest MarketingProfs marketing writing kit for free! Visit: http://mprofs.com/ducttape

This week I sat down and had a long chat with my old friend Brian Clark. We talked for about an hour (we only recorded about 25 minutes worth) and it reminded me just how important it is to take the time to connect and reconnect with every important relationship.

If you give the recording a listen what you’ll find is less of an interview and more like two good friends talking about stuff that matters to them.

In this episode, we talk about his latest venture is Further – a curated newsletter of tips for living a better life. And we discuss the past, present and future of content marketing and Brian’s many ventures in marketing.

I think it’s a huge testament to growth to see how Clark has evolved both professionally and personally and Further is a manifestation of that growth

Questions I ask Brian:

What makes the Rainmaker Platform special?

Why take the time on a new feature that isn’t business oriented?

How do you use neuroscience to make yourself feel better and more effective at work?

Things you’ll learn if you give a listen:

How content creators change their view of content distribution over time

How Brian refocused his life from business and to more important things

Why not everything is about making money

This week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by MarketingProfs. Do you have the write stuff? Unleash your inner writer by downloading the latest MarketingProfs marketing writing kit for free! Visit: http://mprofs.com/ducttape